


Darkness

by ArcadiosV (Mariannie)



Series: The Archives [2]
Category: Guild Wars 2 (Video Game)
Genre: Angst, Body Horror, Hurt/Comfort, Loss of a limb, and a dog, chase - Freeform, slightly graphic violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-19
Updated: 2020-12-19
Packaged: 2021-03-10 18:00:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,471
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28171311
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mariannie/pseuds/ArcadiosV
Summary: The nightmare was all he'd known, but getting away from it was not as easy as he hoped it would have been.
Series: The Archives [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2063736
Kudos: 1





	Darkness

**Author's Note:**

> Rory again.  
> He's been through a lot of crap, but maybe it gets better now.
> 
> This does contain body horror, mind the tags please.

Fleeing from the nightmare court in the dead of night was not what Rory had imagined he would do at any point in his life. He had been convinced their ways were the right ones, that their disregard of the tablet was righteous and that they had very good points on life in general.

He had been with them for almost two years now, thrown away his old life, which had never really been a life in general. Being pitied by older sylvari, paronized, mother henned. It wasn’t his fault that his pod had been corrupted and he had been thrown into life, without any understanding of the world, with terrible fears of what was going to come, with horrible nightmares.

The corruption had caused him to remain smaller than most, frail, somewhat sickly. And he hated the looks they had given him every time they saw him.

The only person who had ever regarded him with respect had been the very woman who had dared to save him, in those first few hours of his life. Roise had never left his side until he had recovered enough to be by himself. She had never babied him, never seen him that needed to be protected from the world.

He wasn’t the only one that had his pod corrupted. Arguably, he had it better than some of the others. 

Roise had always treated him like an equal, she wasn’t afraid to lash out when it had to be done. She had slapped him across the cheek when he told her that he wanted to join the court, that he felt more at home there than he had ever felt in the grove.

He had missed her for a while. He still did, but there was no way he could go back to the grove, not after this long, not after being with the nightmare for so long. It could have been a quiet escape.

He could have just snuck out, run away and never turn back. 

It could have been so easy. 

They had brought in a bunch of sylvan pup’s just hours before. He had always hated it when the nightmare corrupted the lively and sometimes quite silly puppies, into deathly murder machines.

He had never dared to interfere.

But now he was already leaving. The nightmare wasn’t what he had wanted. He wanted to be free of rules, free of orders, free of people who looked down on him. He had nothing left to lose now.

He had no home, he had no money. It didn’t matter. 

And so he freed the puppies, ushered them to run. And they fled, hopefully back to where they had come from. 

One of them was perched in a corner, scared, seemingly unharmed but not moving.

Rory sighed. “Come on, silly thing, we’re leaving.” it was a hushed whisper. If any of them realized what he was doing they would hunt him.

They wouldn’t leave him in one piece if they ever found him. The puppy only continued to stare at him with wide eyes. 

He could have left it. He could have just left it and ran away. BUt that wasn’t who he was. He wasn’t like them.

They had never tried to taint him, maybe because he had joined them without resistance. He had done what was asked of him and didn't ask questions. He had been cruel, he had done horrible things.

Things he couldn’t possibly make up in all of his remaining lifetime. Guilt had never been a new feeling. It was one of the first he had actively experienced.

And still. He couldn’t leave this being to its demise.

He walked up to the terrified thing, crouched down, let it sniff his hand. 

Unfocused for a moment, he noticed the hounds too late.

The puppy squeezed itself further into a corner, whimpered in terror. Rory heard his own scream echo in the night, when one of the hounds bit into his arm, teeth crushing through soft bark like a dried out twig.

It snapped just as easily.

The pain was overwhelming, he couldn’t move, only howl against the agony, probably alerting the whole camp to what was going on. The puppy yapped at the hounds that dared to get close, and in a sudden need to protect the innocent creature, rory grabbed the other hound by the leaves, yanked it backall while the first was still clinging to his arm-

Until it wasn’t, anymore.

It had taken the whole arm with it. 

Satisfied with its prey, the hound backed off, and Rory stared in wide eyed horror at what had just happened. Golden sap was dripping to the soil below, the whole lower half of his arm gone. 

Torn to shreds by a nightmare hound.

He didn’t even feel the pain he knew he should have felt. 

A bark ripped him out of the trance, the puppy seemingly having found new courage. 

And Rory ran.

The small dog was following him through the night, never straying far. He was pressing his hand against what was left of his left arm, tried to stop the bleeding, but the hounds were still behind him, and no matter how often he had been through this place, how often he had walked the baths between the camp and Kessex Hills, in the night everything looked different.

He had almost reached Kessex Hills when one of the nightmare hounds caught up with him. 

His boot took most of the damage when the needle sharp teeth sank into his leg, but the pain rivaled that in his arm. He kicked after the hound, grabbed one of the daggers and managed to dislodge it before it could finish it’s work. 

He stumbled back to his feet.

Ran.

The adrenalin masking the agony he should have been in. He felt the throbbing pain, but the fear won over it. They would be looking for him. He could hear them yell in the distance.

The human city wasn’t far, they wouldn’t look for him there, not immediately. They probably wouldn’t be able to do anything about his injuries, but he would find a solution. Eventually.

The only issue was that his strength was waning, and soon the puppy that still followed him was stopping every few paces so he could catch up. It was a strange dog, seeming weirdly aware of the situation, but his mind was playing tricks on him now. 

He felt dizziness creeping up on him, nausea made him clench his teeth. Maybe he wouldn’t make it to queensdale, like he had hoped.

He had been there twice, once because he had gotten lost, and the other time to get something from a bandit. 

Both of those times seemed so long ago now.

The puppy whined at him when he stumbled, barely able to catch his balance. He had to use his remaining arm for that, whining against the pain, the unexpected movement had caused. 

All because he had tried to save this dog…

“You… need a name.” he rasped. 

It surprised him how out of breath he was. 

He couldn’t stay here. This wasn’t safe, if he at least made it to queensdale…

He forced himself back to his feet, took note of his damaged leg and how badly it was bleeding, despite the boot having taken the brunt of the force. He could worry about that later.

Safety now, somewhere. 

The dizziness persisted, blurred his vision more and more. He kept tripping over his own feet, and everytime he did land on the ground he contemplated just staying there.

But the dog needed food, it needed shelter… it needed someone to look after it, it was still just a puppy…

He wasn't sure how long it took him until he reached queensdale, he didn’t remember most of the journey to Divinity’s Reach either. It didn’t matter. 

When he had reached the city gates his legs gave out. The seraph guards approaching him with alarm, caution. The hounds had stopped chasing him rather quickly, he doubted that anyone of the court was dumb enough to get this far into human territory. 

He tried to get back to his feet, failing miserably at it. 

Everything was a blur. Yes, sylvari bled out slower than most beings, but there was an end to it too. He was sure he was close to reaching it, now that all strength had faded from his remaining limbs and he couldn't fight against the exhaustion anymore. 

The guards were talking to him, but the fuzz in his head and the ringing in his ears made him unable to understand what they were saying. He could make out that one of them was crouching down to him, then the darkness that had lingered at the edge of his vision swallowed him.


End file.
